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11. Moving to Melbourne

Melbourne at a Glance

Moving to Melbourne

Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, is a popular destination for many residents from overseas.

Moving to Melbourne, you have decided to live in Australia’s second most populous city. Melbourne is not only the capital of Victoria, Australia’s smallest – and most densely populated – mainland state, but also its economic powerhouse. It used to be the center of Australia’s “rustbelt”. However, since the 1980s, Melbourne has gradually mastered the transition from a focus on manufacturing to a booming service sector. Lots of jobseekers moving to Melbourne’s metropolitan area find employment in the revived urban economy.

But expatriates moving to Melbourne profit from more than the city’s job opportunities. A move to Melbourne is an attractive option, due to the high quality of living in the area. Nicknamed both “Australia’s unofficial cultural capital” and “City of Gardens”, Melbourne boasts a lively arts and entertainment scene, a variety of annual cultural festivals and sports events, and plenty of open green spaces. Expats moving to Melbourne should note that the Economist Intelligence Unit nominated Melbourne the “world’s most livable city” for foreign assignees in 2011. 

Moving to Melbourne: History and Geography

The history of this much appreciated city begins with a sad fact, though: In 1835, the first European settlers moving to Melbourne’s area founded their village on land theft. They squatted on the territory of the Aboriginal Wurundjiri nation, which was gradually decimated due to dispossessment, diseases, and frontier violence. The British settlement, however, prospered, living up to the city’s later motto: vires acquirit eundo – Latin for “she gathers strength as she goes”. With crowds of diggers and miners moving to Melbourne, it soon turned into the “Marvellous Melbourne” of the gold rush years.

Nowadays, Melbourne is a thriving 21^st-century metropolis. 75% of all people living in Victoria preferred moving to Melbourne to the state’s rural regions. Located around Port Philipp Bay and the mouth of the Yarra River, the greater metropolitan area now includes 30 municipalities. It is divided into three areas, according to their distance from Melbourne’s city center: Inner Melbourne, Metropolitan Melbourne, and Outer Melbourne.

Move to Melbourne: Population and Climate

After moving to Melbourne as an expat, you will join the ranks of nearly four million people who live in the metropolitan area today. More than a quarter of all residents were born overseas. The Anglo-Celtic (i.e. English-Irish-Scottish) heritage of the first European colonists moving to Melbourne has long given way to a multicultural society. In some municipalities, the percentage of foreign-born residents is even far higher than 25%. For example, in the city center of Melbourne, 44% of its nearly 100,000 inhabitants were born outside Australia, moving to Melbourne from countries as different as Malaysia, China, the UK, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Italy.

Unfortunately, the weather in Melbourne is as varied as its population. The oceanic climate results in rather moderate temperatures: The yearly average ranges from 10.2 °C (minimum) to 19.8°C (maximum). However, the weather is also extremely changeable. When you move to Melbourne, you will soon find out why Melbournians joke about “four seasons in one day”. So, please make sure to pack your suitcase accordingly before moving to Melbourne.